Tom Crone's 25-year career advising the Sun and the News of the World came to
an abrupt end within 10 days of the Milly Dowler hacking allegations coming
to light.

The highly-regarded barrister left the Mirror Group to join News International in 1985 and spent the next two decades steering the Murdoch red tops out of legal trouble.

In 2009 he accompanied Colin Myler to the culture, media and sport select committee. Like the then-editor he insisted that he had see nothing to contradict the theory that phone hacking had been carried out by a single "rogue reporter".

Grilled by MPs, he said: “At no stage during their (the police) investigation or our investigation did any evidence arise that the problem of accessing by our reporters, or complicity of accessing by our reporters, went beyond the Goodman, Mulcaire situation.”

On July 14, four days after the NoW closed, it was abruptly announced that Mr Crone was also leaving the company. Friends said he feared being “hung out to dry” by senior Murdoch executives, desperate for a scapegoat.

On July 22, he appeared to strike first, releasing a joint statement with Mr Myler that flatly contradicte claims by James Murdoch that he had no knowledge of the "for Neville" email, which appears to show evidence that phone hacking went beyond a single reporter.